How to open an online store on Instagram from scratch?: a guide for beginners.

Create and set up a business profile

You should not think that on this resource only clothes and cosmetics are sold well. If you have a desire and enough knowledge, you can promote anything – from auto parts to books. An online store on Instagram Can help you to sell anything.

There is nothing difficult in registering a commercial Instagram account: all you have to do is bind your profile to Facebook. Now you have to come up with the name of the account, its description and upload a profile photo. Contact the designer to create a logo version specifically for your Instagram profile.

On the main page of a business account, it is important to try briefly and clearly express the essential characteristics of the store. The profile must be informative, the user immediately understands what kind of products you offer (there is a link to the site, a description, and contacts).

Account Processing: Briefly about Identity

The word “IDENTITY” – is a term involving all the elements of brand identification. Identity, or corporate identity of the brand, includes:

• Brand name
• Logo
• A fixed palette of firm-specific colors
• General principles of composition
• Original graphics

Identity contributes to memorization and the emergence of associative connections among consumers. What does this mean for an online store account on Instagram? All the effort on the design is reduced to one principal goal: to cause the desire to purchase goods.

Create a single visual style for all posts different from competitors’ profiles or accounts of similar themes.

Instagram content is created for the same purpose so that the brand can be easily identified and remembered.

Establishment of content for an online store on Instagram

Content is one of the main carriers of your brand philosophy, its culture, basic principles, fundamental values, corporate ethics. Speaking of the obvious – the first thing to do is to hire or learn the craft of a photographer. High-quality photos of your product done by professional equipment with the correct exposure and good light – half of your success.

Take photos of the product in action, choose good quality photos, and don’t upload them with text. Except for the design, the content plan should include a description of content types, provisions of text styles, and hashtags for headings.

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Write a content plan: define the types of publications and the time of placement

The Instagram content plan is prepared for a week and pre-determines the names of posts with publication dates. The following standard types of content can be distinguished;

• Reputational – Information about the victories of your brand/product. For example; celebrities use your products, your brand received a diploma at the exhibition, upgraded its qualifications or successfully passed the certification, etc. Also, tell about participation in charity; how do you help to take care of nature or help shelter homeless animals.
• Instructional – Posts that help customers use your product. For cosmetics – the rules of makeup, for tissue shop – lessons on sewing products.
• Entertaining – A great reason to make your followers laugh or to please with a fun picture/video. Choose jokes on topics close to your audience. In this, a careful study of customer accounts will help you. If you have complicated relationships with humor, would be better not to joke at all.
• Informative – Includes information about sales, seasonal discounts, and promotions. Here you can also include events of your industry, trends, and comparisons with competitors’ products.
• Communicatory – Polls, requests to choose the best option. Appeal to your followers for advice – this will help to engage the audience in a dialogue. For example: before starting production of a new line of clothing, ask your audience to choose a print, style, etc. Share the book you read, ask what inspires your followers. Or tell about your future plans and ask the audience about the same.
• Selling – This task of these posts is very clear, you can tell about the advantages of your product, show how your product helped to solve the client’s problem, use storytelling.

Peculiarities of working with hashtags

Regarding the hashtags, it’s time to dispel the myths about their incredible benefits.

1. Search by hashtags? It is unlikely that an ordinary user so often uses this feature. Many people even don’t know how to use the search – often users just watch event feed of friends and followers.
2. Popular hashtags will bring you likes from offers (like the same stores and commercial profiles. Such activity is useless and even harmful.
3. You can use popular hashtags, but their increase in search is very furious. Do not expect that you will be noticed among the constantly updated hundreds and thousands of new photos of more than 700 million Instagram users!

Anyway, hashtags will not bring any significant benefit in promoting your account. However, there is comforting news. It is possible and necessary to use hashtags as follows:

1. Geohashtags; binding to a concrete region – The usual hashtag (#tissue) is not aimed at any segment of the target audience, but the (#tissueUSA) will be much more useful.
2. Hashtags as categories – #tissue #silk #synthetic  #velour #velvet; this kind of hashtags are designed to make easier for the user to search for the necessary range in your online store account.
3. Brand hashtags – In this case, you can just use the name of your brand as a hashtag.

It is recommended not to abuse hashtags. Try to use no more than 11 to post.

Usage of emojis

Everyone has already noticed that Facebook has replaced regular likes with smilies? In Instagram, however, a good part of comments are made up of smiles.

Emojis or smilies:

• Cause emotions and help to become friends with your audience.
• Facilitate the perception and erase language boundaries.
• Attract attention and help to focus on the text.
• Save time and space by reducing the number of words.

Product’s placement rules

What is an online store without the assortment? So, what can and should be included in the product description on the Instagram network:

1. Product description – Write it briefly and interesting, you can add fun facts, your personal experience, the history of the appearance of the product in the store, provide usage statistics. Write a story about how your customers solved their problems with your products. Always remember that people come to talk and not buy! Tell about trends.
2. Specify the appointment – For whom it is suitable and how this product is useful. Imagine talking privately with a customer. In addition to the dry facts about the characteristics of the product, describe also the emotional benefits that it will bring. For example, if a dress is made of flax, add that it will be comfortable even in forty-degree heat. Attracted attention? Now mark the price/availability/ store address. Necessarily write about the discount – it will give the opportunity to feel that the customer not only spends but also saves. People react positively to discounts.
3. Specify the link to the profile/website or the name of the store/brand. Try to keep the brand name in front of your customers’ eyes, it helps to remember.
4. Enter the heading “product of the week” (or day), and tell why this product deserves the attention of the audience.

Media Work: Live and Instagram Stories

In August 2016 Instagram launched a new service – Instagram Stories and after 2 months, more than 100 million users were using it.

You can add;

• Instruction on how to use the product
• Interesting videos and photos from the life of your employees at work – “behind the scenes”.
• Contests, promotions, and giveaways.
• Interviews with interesting people.
• Product announcements, opening season.

Using Instagram Stories you also can;

• Look for the audience by active hashtags and geolocation.
• Sell products, indicating in the video or in the text on the image about the possibility to take the order in “Direct” using the “Send Message”
• Arrange a quest or marathon.
• Link to another your or recommended account.
• Make live broadcasts and get in touch with your audience. Publications in video format attract more.

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Attracting New Subscribers and Keeping Audience

In 2016, influence marketing became one of the most popular tools in promoting brands around the world. The concept is quite simple: the brand finds an “influencer” (opinion leader) that fits the campaign objectives. Anyone can be an influencer – from a popular streamer to a person with the nickname SuperMama who is believed by all moms participating in the baby forum, a blogger, and a celebrity with millions of followers. An influencer can be any group, brand, company, or even a club according to the interests that people trust in certain questions. Your active followers, who share company values and are involved in community life, are also peculiar opinion leaders. An important rule is that before looking for an “influencer”, you need to match him with your target audience.

Advertising publications from the “influencers” do not just get more reaches, but will help you with many other points;

• Increase audience / brand / company / product / service awareness.
• Audience formation.
• Increase in the number of followers.
• Working out the negative (opinion leaders help dispel the myth about the harm/deficiencies of the product/service).
• Increase sales.
• Higher confidence.

If you are sure that your audience is on Instagram, then this social network is a great e-commerce platform. Finding new ways to attract customers is a difficult but interesting process.

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